Sex assault suspect dead of apparent suicide

Connecticut firefighter faced charges in Vermont

Mar. 5, 2013

Written by

Free Press Staff

NEWFANE — A West Haven, Conn., firefighter who was charged in Vermont last week with aggravated sexual assault and slave trafficking has committed suicide, the Vermont State Police said Tuesday night.

Frank Meyer, 39, was found dead at about 3 p.m. Tuesday on South Wardsboro Road in Newfane, state police said.

Detective Sgt. John Hagan said the investigation, in conjunction with a medical examiner, showed the death was consistent with a suicide. The cause of death was not released by Hagan in a news release.

An autopsy is planned for Wednesday in Burlington at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.

Meyer had been released on conditions from court after posting bail in the criminal case.

Prosecutors charged Meyer and Brett Bartolotta, 42, of Cavendish on Thursday with jointly and repeatedly sexually assaulting a boy in Ludlow for years beginning more than a decade ago when he was 12 years old.

Both men had volunteered as firefighters for the West Haven Fire Department, though Bartolotta had been inactive since moving to Vermont, Fire Chief James O’Brien said last week.

Meyer was also an instructor for the fire department’s youth outreach program, which is affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America, according to O’Brien.

The Vermont State Police, which began investigating the allegations two weeks ago, say they suspect the men might have assaulted additional children. Bartolotta and Meyer had homes in both Vermont and Connecticut, police said.

No additional victims have been identified, state police have said. Troopers were working with police in West Haven, Conn.

The alleged victim, now 25, told police Feb. 15 that he met Bartolotta at age 12 while riding dirt bikes at a friend’s house in Ludlow, and the man offered to sell him a dirt bike, according to an affidavit written by Trooper Daniel Trottier.

The victim told police Bartolotta introduced him to Meyer about a year later, the affidavit states, and that he engaged in sex acts with both men hundreds of times, and received money and gifts from the men, through his teens and early 20s.

During a sting operation the night of Feb. 21, state police recorded a dinner conversation between the alleged victim and Meyer at DJ’s Restaurant in Ludlow, according to the affidavit. During the conversation, the alleged victim alluded to sex he had with Meyer as a boy, and asked Meyer if he recalled the incidents, the affidavit states. Meyer said he did, according to the affidavit.

State police arrested Meyer after the dinner and Bartolotta later that night.

The slave trafficking charge alleges the men induced, enticed, procured or compelled the alleged victim to a life of prostitution.